Red Sun Rising
by Kaatje7
Summary: Part One of GS series Gary gets bored one afternoon, after travelling the wrong way through the time portal he gets more adventure than he bargained for. GS/OC son of canon char Slash
1. Into The Arms Of Temptation

Part One – Into The Arms Of Temptation

It was a Sunday afternoon and Gary was sitting alone in his shop 'Blitz and Pieces'. Why? Well, that was a good question. He was suffering from something that a two-timing, song writing, wartime-secret agent didn't usually have trouble with; boredom. Ron was out; he had called round at the Mayfair flat that morning, it wasn't like Ron to go off like that. No Yvonne either, she was away on an extended 'fact finding' mission and Phoebe had gone to see her Gran in Liverpool and had taken Michael with her. What was there left to do but open up the shop, it wasn't as if bigamy usually left him with enough time to entertain a hobby. Nobody had come in so far, he hadn't taken a single pound all morning; it was hardly surprising though, he was normally shut. He had half considered going back to the past to talk to Reg but he wasn't that desperate yet. Even the 19th Century was out of the question; to them he was Jack The Ripper.

Sick of staring at the displays in the shop, Gary decided to step out into the yard and have a cigarette. He didn't know why he hardly smoked in the present but even stranger was the fact that he never did it indoors. It was a lovely day; he couldn't blame Ron for going out. It was a shame; he would have enjoyed an afternoon of chat without the usual bigamistical overtones, he didn't even have a complicated problem to sort out. If he ever had to make his life solely in the past, he would miss Ron. Now, on a day like this, when he wasn't there for him, Gary realised how much.

Gary lit his second cigarette and his gaze fell upon the gate where the portal was. Could he? Should he? He could always get a train up to Liverpool. It wasn't a very good option though; he had had to make major excuses to Phoebe when it looked likely that Yvonne would want him to come with her. Then he had had an argument with Yvonne, whilst trying to arrange some good quality time in the past for the coming week and she had gone off on her own. He couldn't turn up in Liverpool when he had built his latest excuse up to sound like he was about to win the war single-handed. Now he came to think about it that ruled out a chat with Reg too, even if he did get that desperate. Again he turned to the portal with longing.

It was then that the idea struck him. A few months ago he had been dropped off in a taxi at the wrong end of Duckett's Passage. He had wandered through the portal and had ended up kissing a very likable Yvonne look-alike in a long dress in the 19th Century. What if he did the same thing in the present? All he would have to do was walk round the block to the back of the shop and approach the gate from the other side. Maybe he would find a Phoebe waiting for him in the future and he wouldn't be accused of murder before he got a chance to get his clothes off. Maybe she would be wearing a very short futuristic little dress. That thought cheered him up a lot.

Back in the shop he began to make his plans. What was he going to do for money? The answer to that little question lay all around him; a few selected items from his shop and directions to the nearest antique store would do the trick. For clothes, the jeans and shirt he was wearing should just about cut it, they were pretty timeless items. As for the rest, well he would have to buy a newspaper at the first opportunity he got and hope for the best.

Before he went, Gary ate the sandwiches he had brought for his lunch; he didn't know how long it would take to find some money. His thoughts fell on daydreaming about the future he was about to experience. Up to now he had never had the opportunity to ponder these things, he had always ended up in different eras as a surprise. He mulled over all the utopian dreams a lot of people churned out when faced with predicting the future. Somehow he didn't think the human race could pull off lasting peace. He would have to hold his breath as he walked through the portal in case the air was full of radioactive fallout. No matter what he thought 2052 might be like, however, one thing was certain, he would be proved wrong; future predictions were always like that.

By 11am he had crammed as much ham and coleslaw down his throat as he could manage, it was time to go. He was in the back yard and almost about to walk through the portal when he realised his mistake.

"Gary mate, you've been doing this too long," he said to himself, turned round and went back in the shop. He unlocked the front door, got out onto the street, locked it behind him and made his way round to the back.

Gary stood before the portal, it was deep breath time; he couldn't look as he walked through, at least with the past there could be no surprises on the appearance front. He walked three paces and stopped, the air didn't feel radioactive. There was a cool breeze in the air but Gary could also feel the sun on his face. He forced himself to open his eyes; he couldn't very well stand there in the dark all day. What did he see? Well it was his yard and his back door. Slightly let down, he peaked to the left and the right. Ha! No wall on either side, the two neighbouring yards had been joined with his by knocking down the walls; the doors had been bricked up too. Did he keep time travelling into his retirement and build an empire? No, he thought, this yard was far too tidy to be his.

Some more steps forward were inevitable; he was stuck in the yard otherwise. He tentatively approached his back door and peaked through the frosted glass. What he saw was a kitchen, like in a restaurant with big fridges and huge cookers. It was empty, he tried the door and it opened effortlessly. The kitchen was wide and thin; it ran the entire width of the three original units. Gary stepped forward to the opposite door, which he presumed led to the space that used to be his shop. He listened for a while, it sounded like he was in the back rooms of a bar but there was an odd herbal smell in the air and no hint of cigarettes or beer. He could see through the gap between the door and the door frame, the sole barman was sitting on a stool and paying far too much attention to the contents of the till to worry about a misplaced time traveller. He opened the door and snuck through.

Fortunately for Gary the hatch was up and it was directly in front of him. He got himself placed on the correct side of the bar without drawing any attention to himself. He looked to the barman; there was the man he could ask directions off. Gary approached him.

"Excuse me," Gary began.

The barman looked up from the accounts he was dealing with, "How may I help you?" he asked.

Gary's mouth dropped open at the sight. The man was fairly tall, quite thin in build, his hair was fair in colour and he spoke with a good quality London voice. More important, however, was the fact that he looked very much like Ron. Apart from the posh voice, the fact that he was slightly better looking and a little indefinable something it could almost have been Ron if he had gone on a diet and stretched a bit. Ron would never be able to sound that posh, he had no idea what else was different but there was something. Gary's gaping shock might have been more embarrassing had the Ron look-alike not looked him over too.

"I am new to the area and I was just wondering if you could direct me to the nearest antique shop," Gary stuttered.

The Ron look-alike smiled warmly, "Yea, no problem," he said. He then proceeded to give Gary perfect instructions using street names that were the same as those in 1999. Maybe this Ron was a little younger than the one he was used to, Gary thought, but that wasn't totally it, there was still something else about him. Gary said his thanks and turned to go.

"Come back and stay awhile sometime," the Ron look-alike called after him.

"Yes, I will do, it's a nice place you have here," Gary half turned to reply. Even if it hadn't been a nice place, he still needed to come back so he could sneak back into the yard.

Things out front hadn't changed much, well not as much as he had expected anyway. The units had different shops in them but they were still the same buildings. Cars still ran on the same side of the road but they were a different shape and dripped water from their exhausts. The air smelled slightly odd; clean in fact, it was the most bizarre thing. Gary felt quite relaxed; there was no scary factor in this future at all.

He found the antique shop easily and traded a few valuable watches in return for a shocking amount of money. He bought a paper at the first newsagent's he came across and went for a wander through the streets. Even when compared to the 21st Century prices he came across, his antiques had fetched a sizable sum. He was going to have a lot of fun in the future, if only he could find where to have it.

After an hour of wandering he thought it was about time he armed himself with some current affairs. A little bit of searching later he found a park and more importantly, a park bench to sit on. A man with a large steel urn on a trolley came round selling hot milky tea. Gary bought a cup from him and only three sips later realised that there had been something slightly odd with that. Still, the tea was very good.

Gary sat back and felt the sun on his face; it was nice to see that in 2052, people weren't actually walking around in total sun block. Did he really want to know the news of the future? Did he really need to know? He wasn't sure now. Each step toward the future had made his boring Sunday seem nicer; why spoil it, news always spoilt things. He was being stupid, he told himself, what could there be about this future that would spoil things, he hadn't even seen anybody of suspicious intent yet, never mind an actual crime. Maybe this was a peaceful Utopia and the human race had sorted itself out at last. Reassured, Gary unfolded the paper and took a look at the front page, it bore small ads columns rather like the Times had in the 1940s, he opened it to the first page.

"Oh bugger!" he said to himself and to anyone who was close enough to hear, ten people in fact.

The newspaper was full of war stories. Peace talks breaking down, threats of invasion, of air strikes. There were conscription articles, adverts for food that kept well in the air-raid shelters. Just the sort of the thing he had come to expect from the 1940s. Only this time it was the future, with future warfare and future bombs. Gary looked up to the sky; just within sight there was a barrage balloon. Down on the ground some of the more important buildings had sand bags up against them, how had he missed that before? All these preparations for war but no sense of danger in the air; what was this place he had walked into?

He must get back to the bar, Gary decided, have a quick drink with future Ron, then head back home. He didn't want to live through a 21st Century Blitz, it didn't sound amusing. The concept of him actually living through it struck him as an odd one; if man had achieved anything it was thinking of better ways to blow things up.

On second thoughts, he would visit the history section of the library first, and then he was definitely going home. He just had to find out what would happen after he left the 90s, whether Yvonne would be OK without him or not. Gary looked around him for somewhere to put his disposable plastic cup and was disappointed to find that the world had yet to move on from the good old rusty park bin, which any passing breeze could easily render useless.

The library was still in the same building as in the 90s Gary was relieved to find. It seemed that progress had become unfashionable at last and he was very grateful for it. His presumptions were premature, however, when he got inside, he found that the library didn't contain any books. In the place of bookcases were row upon row of computer terminals. Oh goody, Gary thought, he had always hated the things. At least they might have made them simple enough for a dog to operate by now. The good old keyboard had survived the fad for speech dictation he observed, there was something very weird about having to talk to a machine. He sat down at a terminal and had a good look at the visual interface.

To Gary it looked very much like an Internet browser from what he could remember from the two times he had been online. Had Bill Gates joined the masses and become bored with yearly updates? Out of pure mischief Gary typed 'Bill Gates' into the text box and clicked on search. The options shot onto the screen faster than he could blink. No longer the 'World Wide Wait' he muttered to himself. Which areas did he wish to search? He clicked on the 'news' radio button and received a list of newspaper articles in chronological order.

Not surprisingly, the poor guy was dead. Much to Gary's disappointment though, it was from natural causes at a very old age. What was it with the future? Didn't anybody lose everything and commit suicide anymore? What this century needed was a suave and debonair time traveller to save the day; maybe he would stick around for a while. After all, the portal back to the 1990s was only in the yard of the Ron look-alike's bar. He would just leg it in the opposite direction to everybody else when the siren went off.

This keyword search thing was all very well but now what did he do if he just wanted to find out generally what had been going down since 1999? Modern history perhaps? It was worth a try. He got the list of options again and chose 'books' and the high school age range; he didn't want to get bogged down in academic speculation and minutiae. Then he spent two hours reading and clicking on links. As he finished reading about the lead up to the current war he sat back exhausted, emotionally drained and astonished, above all.

The turn of the century? Well he had skipped that bit; he might yet have to live through it. Anyway, the human race seemed to have made it through to the 21st Century with progress still storming it forward. By the year 2010 the population of Britain was so out of hand, however, that the government and The Church of England led a campaign to promote homosexuality with cash incentives to same sex couples. As a result, previous estimates of the proportion of gay people to straight had to be thrown right out of the window. Around about the same time, maybe a bit earlier, the first child grown in a laboratory was 'born', it seemed that this method of child bearing had rapidly become the norm. A spin off of this was that it made it easier for the government to control birth rate. For every sperm or egg harvest, half of the produce had to go anonymously into a government bank. If you wanted one child you could choose the gender, if you wanted two you had to take potluck. Any registered couple was eligible for a child. Same sex couples made use of the government bank at no extra cost.

What else had been going on? Well, somebody discovered that it wasn't actually possible to make a PC processor that would go any faster. It appeared that this had the knock on effect of bringing to an end the constant upgrade process in software as well as hardware by removing the need to keep up with 'the competition', since there wasn't anywhere to go anymore. People still made discs that did different stuff, things just weren't moving at such a scary speed anymore.

And the war thing? Well it appeared to have been rumbling on for quite some time. The longevity of the build-up could be directly attributed to the trend for global decommissioning in the very early days of the century. By the time everybody realised that they did still hate each other after all, there wasn't much left. A few old bunkers of stuff were opened up and things got under way but it had taken a while for everybody to get up to strength. As Gary saw it, he had walked into the 21st Century at just the right moment, if he wanted to see lots of fireworks anyway. He just hoped they hadn't got to the plans for the really big nasty bombs yet.

The complacency of the population that Gary had observed seemed to be coming from something similar to 'The Phoney War' at the end of the 1930s. There was panic, a whole heap of preparations for all out war, then nothing much happened for a very long time. Not as far as the civilian was concerned anyway, there were many young men getting plenty of action overseas. Wouldn't you know it but the Germans were responsible for this lot too, he didn't want to get started on 'that' subject.

Gary felt that he definitely needed that drink now. He wasn't sure what he had to do to put the computer back to its original state so he just left it as it was and quickly walked away. He was looking forward to a chat with Ron's look-alike now that didn't feel so out of his depth.

Gary found the bar again easily. He stood on the other side of the road looking at the façade for a while. The bar was called 'Blitz and Pieces' of all things, the interior hadn't reflected this at all. As he crossed the road he could see Ron's look-alike still behind the bar. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon here just as it had been in the present; business was slow. There were plenty tables to be had but Gary took his place on a stool by the bar.

Ron's look-alike turned out to be called Xavier Wheatcroft, which placed him as more of a grandson than a mere look-alike. Gary took a quick look at his name badge before he noticed that he had returned, he was the manager of the bar. He also had a look at the types of refreshment on offer. The bar was lined with on-draft pumps but the back wall was a display of hundreds of varieties of cigarette. Xavier looked up and noticed him at last. Smiling he asked Gary what he would like.

"A beer please, what do you have that's cold and wet?" Gary asked.

Xavier laughed, "This isn't a retro bar you know, despite the name. What would you like to smoke?"

Gary was bemused, "Just pick me something I probably haven't tried before," He said trying to sound casual and confident.

"Well that's easy," Xavier replied leaning over to the display behind him, still sat on the stool, "Try some Peruvian, I can reach that and it's amongst the best you'll find."

"Sounds cool," Gary replied with enthusiasm as Xavier placed before him three cigarettes and a lighter served on a small side plate, "Can I have a drink too?"

"No problem, what would you like?" Xavier asked.

"What have you got?" Gary replied not wanting to take any more chances.

"Coke, diet Coke, Lilt, diet Lilt, Sprite, Tango all flavours…" Xavier began.

"I'll have a coke please," Gary cut in as it became clear that soft drinks were the order of the day.

Xavier served Gary a coke from the comfort of his stool then took the lighter and offered the flame to him. Gary placed one of the cigarettes in his lips and leant forward to take the light. He leant back and took a good long drag on the cigarette fully expecting to experience something more than your normal smoke, this bar was so specialised. He got rather more than he bargained for; this cigarette wasn't tobacco, it was a joint. Gary slowly let his head come forward again trying to keep the surprise from his face. This was only unusual to him, he must remember that.

"Good isn't it?" Xavier enquired.

"Yep, it certainly is," Gary replied as he felt the beginning of it going to his head, it was also very quick. He proceeded with much smaller drags then took a sip of coke. At least there was something constant, the coke tasted just as it always had.

Suddenly there was a loud noise from behind, Gary turned sharply to see three rough looking men striding into the bar having just banged the door unnecessarily. Gary smelled trouble.

"Drinkoes," Xavier whispered loudly to Gary as a warning. Evidently, 'drinkoes' was meant to mean something too him which it didn't. The future had just turned scary and he was on the wrong side of the bar. The three rough blokes were all dressed in military uniform. Trying to look cool more than eight decades after your birth is something you should try to avoid but Gary gave it a go anyway.

The men staggered as they approached the bar. They were obviously very drunk. Gary looked to Xavier in an attempt to gauge his mood, he looked terrified.

"Special Six all round, love," the tallest of them demanded in a threatening tone.

"You know I can't serve you," Xavier replied, he was looking longingly at the door as if expecting back ups.

"We've been given the authority to round up all deserters and draft dodgers and do what we like with them, so you better serve up quick civvy, or tomorrow will not be another day."

"Look Bee, we've got another of the treasonous little shits here," another of the group directed at Gary.

What could Gary do but fall back on an old trick and hope for the best, he was no fighting man and Xavier, though quite well built, wasn't coming out from his side of the bar to help. He turned to the men and stood as tall as he could.

"There are some very important aspects of the war effort which require that an officer should be able to blend into his surroundings and act with a certain amount of 'intelligence' if you get my drift. I would leave my colleague and I alone to continue our conversation in peace or I shall be obliged to report you to your commanding officer. I am sure he will take a very dim view of this blatant abuse of position against what you took to be an ordinary citizen of this good country." He said in his best and most important sounding voice. He didn't know what the hell he was doing trying that line here, it had worked in the 1940s but it wouldn't even cut it in his own time. The 'drinkoes' were quite rightly speechless but he didn't expect it to last long.

The door opened again and a large woman in uniform strode into the bar and pulled a gun on the soldiers.

"Get out and return to base before I have to have you court marshalled," She shouted at them. They weren't about to argue with a gun so they did as they were told. The women stepped through the bar hatch and approached Xavier still holding the gun in her hand. Facially she looked a bit like Yvonne but the build was all wrong, she was so tall and muscular. Her expression had softened considerably. She put an arm round Xavier and squeezed him to within an inch of his life.

"You OK, bro?" She asked him.

This was Xavier's sister? Gary thought this was very strange; she was quite clearly in her late forties and Xavier quite clearly was nowhere near that old.

"Yep, I'm fine," Xavier replied coughing as his sister released him from her grip.

The sister pointed the gun at Gary, "This one OK?" She asked Xavier.

"Yes Suzie, that one is just fine," Xavier replied smiling self-consciously at Gary.

"Good," Suzie said putting her gun away at last, "I'm on duty so I can't stay in here but I'll hang around outside for a while and make sure they've gone."

"Thanks, you're a saviour, pop in for a smoke when you can."

"I will, the girl's will be here soon won't they?" Suzie asked.

"Yep, any minute now I'll be finished for the night and on my way home,"

"You shouldn't walk home on your own." Suzie warned.

Gary was starting to sense weirdness, was there something about Xavier that made everybody but Suzie and him want to beat him up? He looked so harmless too.

"Sis, I'll be fine, you're going to see they're gone aren't you?"

"Yea, I know, I just worry you know, in case it all starts."

"I'll walk him home," Gary cut in surprising himself more than Suzie and Xavier.

"Oh right," Suzie said giving her brother a nudge and a wink, "I'll be off then."

"Bye sis," Xavier called as he watched her leave.

Xavier then turned his attentions to Gary who still wasn't pleased at having been left alone to defend himself despite what he might have volunteered himself for. He lit another 'cigarette'.

"Did you know for sure that she was coming?" He demanded.

"No, she could have been miles away," Xavier replied, "But you were fantastic," He beamed, "You stood up to them and I don't even know your name."

"It's Gary, and don't think I have forgotten about the distinct lack of help there, you forced me to break my cover." Gary snapped.

Xavier's complexion whitened and the smile disappeared.

"So you're really with the Service?" He asked nervously.

"Yes, I am as it happens," Gary replied still in a peeve, "As a matter of interest, why are you not in uniform? Why are you not serving your country like you should be?"

Xavier looked at him as if he was no better than the thugs that had just left, "I was," he said looking down at the bar.

A silence followed and Gary didn't know what to say, he was about to try a few reconciliatory words when there was a new commotion behind him.

Four women walked in loudly chatting and calling out greetings to Xavier, 'the girls' had arrived. By 'the girls' Suzie and Xavier had meant the nighttime staff that would take over. They bustled around the bar for a few minutes, more interested in themselves than how interested Gary was in them, and then went upstairs to get changed.

"I'll be going home in a minute," Xavier announced, "Does the offer of a walk home still stand?"

"Yes, of course it does," Gary replied feeling that it wasn't enough for some reason. Xavier looked like a downtrodden puppy dog and he was beginning to feel guilty for being so short with him. "Would you be at all interested in showing me some good places for a night out?" he added, "If you're not doing anything else of course."

Xavier's face lit up a bit, "Yes, I would like that very much," he replied, "I'll have to call in at home and get changed if you don't mind, you could come with me."

"No problem," Gary replied with a smile.

It didn't seem like a look-alike of Phoebe was going to show up, so what else was he to do? He might as well be on the town with a descendant of Ron than sat in Blitz and Pieces Bar, getting stoned and waiting for some more 'drinkoes' to turn up.

Xavier's resemblance with Ron faded every time they exchanged words. Apart from the occasional gesture there was very little non-physical similarity. What had appeared to be so subtle was becoming a whole separate personality and Gary liked him as much as Ron for all the difference. In a lot of ways Xavier reminded him of Phoebe when they first met, he couldn't really describe it. Maybe it had a bit to do with the war thing, and the bar thing, and not forgetting the fact that Xavier was impressed with his secret agent story.

It wasn't long before 'the girls' came back and insisted that Xavier should get away home.

"Go get your coat," Gary joined in as he protested. Another strange thing about Xavier, he had looked keen to be getting away but when it came to it he hesitated.

"Go, go, go," One of the girls shouted in his ear with a smile.

"My coat is in the back, won't be a moment," Xavier said to Gary.

Xavier eased down off the stool, leant down to a lower shelf and picked up an elbow crutch. Using it, he limped awkwardly into the back room for his coat. When he returned he was using two crutches and was wearing a casual jacket. They turned out to be about the same height. He found that Gary was staring at him with his mouth open and his spirits slumped dramatically.

"I'll understand if you find that you have changed your mind," Xavier said looking at the floor.

Gary was horrified, "No! I was just feeling so bad for giving you a hard time. You were serving weren't you?"

"Yep, I was," Xavier replied, "Then I took a leg full of shrapnel, lay in a ditch for a while, got scraped up and sent off back home."

"Were you fighting long?" Gary asked.

Xavier smiled, "No Gary, I was hopeless, I was only out there for a week after training."

"It's not for everybody, maybe you should join the secret boys."

"Yea, I've got a great cover, nobody would ever guess," Xavier said laughing.

Gary got the feeling that he was going to enjoy his night out with Xavier.

"Did you like those smokes?" Xavier asked.

"Yea, they were good," Gary replied.

Xavier turned to one of the girls who were now stationed behind the bar.

"Can we have twenty Peruvians to go, Phoebe?" He asked the one with long dark hair.

Gary nearly tripped over his own feet turning to get a look of her but she looked nothing like his Phoebe. She passed the smokes to Gary in silver cigarette case with the lighter off the bar. He took them, placed them in his pocket and followed Xavier out into the dusky London night.


	2. Until Forever Fades Away

Part Two – Until Forever Fades Away

Outside it was getting dark and quite cold. Gary fastened his jacket up the front, then took a joint out of the case and tried to get the lighter to work. Xavier was horrified,

"You can't light that out here!" he warned.

"Why not?" Gary asked ignorantly.

Xavier looked skywards, "Blackout of course!"

Gary wasn't sure if this wasn't some mad crazy dream. Blackout and legalised drug taking was just too bizarre a combination. Whatever happened on this night out he would have to stick around till the drugs cleared; otherwise he could be in serious trouble in the present. He turned back to look at the exterior of the bar just as the girls were lining the windows with jet black boards and a canopy came out over the top of the illuminated sign.

They started walking down the street, slowly of course.

"Where do you live?" Gary asked.

"Mayfair; tube OK?"

"Yea, that's fine," Gary replied as he wondered whether it was the Mayfair flat he had bought in the 1940s.

The tube was full of people in uniform but they were sensible and sober; they were left alone. As they walked away from the tube station it became evident that they were heading for Gary's Mayfair flat.

"How long have you lived here?" Gary asked as they approached the building.

Xavier smiled with nostalgia, "All my life," he replied, "My father left it for me when he died, along with the bar."

"It's a nice building," Gary commented.

"I like it," Xavier replied, "It's home anyway, always has been. Do you know, it used to be really posh round here when my father was young?"

"Really?" Gary responded with as much surprise as he could manage.

They got in the lift do go up to the flat. Gary was a bit nervous but not as much as he had been when he had first visited the flat in the present. He knew that he would have known he was coming today and would have sorted it so that there were no surprises to be found. Or at least Ron would have, depending on what had happened to him in the end.

Xavier leant against the wall of the lift and flexed his left wrist; it was covered in scars. He saw that Gary was watching him.

"I was wearing a bullet proof vest and a tin hat which had conveniently slipped to the side, it would have been a lot worse otherwise," Xavier explained.

Gary nodded but couldn't think of a thing to say. The lift stopped and they stepped out onto the corridor. Gary took care to let Xavier go first as he wasn't supposed to know the way. Xavier stopped with the key half turned in the lock.

"Can I ask you something without risking offence? Can I tell you something?" he said.

"Of course you can," Gary replied.

"I tried to hide the shrapnel stuff because I didn't want it to end up being the only thing we talked about, interspersed with silences that you can't fill," Xavier said quietly.

Gary placed a hand on Xavier's arm, "Consider it from this moment ignored, I'm sorry."

"I shouldn't have mentioned it," Xavier said turning back to the door, "If I ask you to talk to me normally it will kill us off for good."

"No, I am absolutely determined to have a very good time tonight and no Jerry mine can stop me, just you watch," Gary replied trying to lift his spirits.

Xavier turned to him and smiled, "I'll not ask how you knew it was a mine."

"Oh well," Gary said in his element now, "That's intelligence for you, highly trained in observation."

Xavier pushed the door open on the flat, switched a light on and they went inside.

"Wow!" Gary said forgetting all about mines and shrapnel as he observed that the flat didn't look too much different to when he had had it in the 1940s.

"Yea," said Xavier proudly, "I decorated it all myself, took me ages to get all the orange paint off after my father died. I wanted to turn it back to it's original state since retro was quite the thing a few years back, I could get all the stuff really easy."

"There's a wall there you haven't done yet," Gary observed, it was cunningly covered by bookcases but he could see torn off bits of the wallpaper from the original 1940s peeking out at the sides.

"I got a bit blown up before I got a chance to finish it," Xavier said ushering him into the lounge, "Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Yes, I would love one," Gary replied with genuine enthusiasm, he wasn't used to going without for so long. They both took their jackets off and removed to the kitchen.

Xavier had everything he needed set out on a table next to the fridge. It was really weird being in somebody else's flat and feeling as if it were his own, he felt he should be making the tea. He wondered briefly how the flat had ended up getting passed on to Xavier, surely if Gary Sparrow had disappeared and been presumed dead, everything would have gone to his wife Yvonne and on from there. He placed the cigarette case and lighter on the table as the kettle boiled and Xavier sat watching him ponder, he hoped telepathy hadn't been invented.

Xavier took a joint each out of the case and handed the lighter to Gary. Gary offered Xavier the light first then lit his own.

"I've been waiting all day for that," Xavier said sitting back in the chair, looking more relaxed, "You've no idea what it's like working amongst that stuff and not being able to have one."

Gary was dying to ask Xavier what a 'retro' bar was and about 'drinkoes' but he dared not risk it; they sounded too much like they were common words. There was a lot Gary wanted to ask Xavier, not least about his father. Not asking about things pertaining to himself he could live with but what had happened to Yvonne? Of course Xavier wouldn't know that anyway.

"Do you have much family in town?" Gary asked, a good neutral kind of enquiry.

"No, just my sister Suzie," Xavier answered quite readily, he obviously had had a happy childhood, "My parents are dead."

"Grandparents?"

Xavier laughed, "No, they died a long time ago."

So now Gary could evoke nostalgic memories to suit his purpose, "Did you get on well with your grandparents?"

"They died before I was born, I never knew them, I got on well with my parents though," Xavier offered, "Which is strange because I was a very late baby."

"I noticed that Suzie was quite a bit older," Gary added.

"Yep," Xavier said as he started to make the tea, "Suzie was among the first bank babies you know, after the laws were changed anyhow."

"Really?"

"My parents were weird, mostly it was same sex couples who used it at first."

This was safer ground, Xavier was a bit of a modern history buff and he was explaining aspects of the future without any suspicions at all; the personal stuff would just slip into place along the way.

Xavier handed Gary his tea, he was glad to see that decaff hadn't survived; it was a very good full-blooded variety.

"What was weird about your parents? Apart from the liberal use of orange paint that is."

Xavier took a long deep drag on the joint and a sip of tea, "Well," he said pausing whilst he thought about his words, "I don't think they loved each other."

"I don't think that's all that unusual," Gary replied with amusement.

"Well yea, what I mean is, I don't think they ever did. There was a very strong bond there, no arguments or anything like that. With my sister and I they were very tactile, very loving indeed but I never saw them touch each other."

Gary agreed, "That is weird, yes."

Xavier looked down at the table and twiddled with his cup, "Gary, I don't know why I'm telling you all this, why I think you would be interested, it's just…"

"I am interested," Gary said placing a hand on Xavier's.

"I know you are, which is weird too," Xavier replied looking up again, "It's just I feel like I've known you forever, like you've always been lounging in my kitchen."

"Well, it's not so weird," Gary said as he thought fondly of Ron, "I feel like I've known you a very long time too."

Xavier took a sharp intake of breath and withdrew his hand, the fine bubble of friendship broken, Gary was instantly confused.

"You're working now aren't you, that's what this is?"

"The Service? No, I'm on leave, you're not under investigation I swear."

Xavier relaxed again, "Sorry, it's just too weird."

"Life's like that."

"My mother and father's names were Yvonne and Ron," Xavier said out of the blue.

Gary froze, that really was weird; he would never have had the nerve to ask.

"I've told you some pretty deep stuff about them, you might as well know that too." Xavier added with a smile.

They sat quietly drinking their tea and smoking for a few minutes, which gave Gary some time to make sense of what he knew. It was too much of a coincidence for Ron to end up with somebody called Yvonne without it being his Yvonne. Even if that had happened Suzie did look a bit like his wife. Which made Xavier not a grandson but a son of Ron's, Gary didn't even want to think of how old Ron had been when he did the deed.

"Would you like to see some pictures of them while I get changed?" Xavier asked suddenly.

Gary found himself nodding and following Xavier back into the lounge, what on earth was he doing? He watched as Xavier fiddled with his computer till a photo album program popped onto the screen.

"There you go," he said vacating the chair for Gary, "I won't be long."

Gary was glad that Xavier had left him to it. He flicked quite quickly through the photos, the first one had shown him all he really wanted to know; Yvonne would be all right. Whether he had died or disappeared, he didn't know but at least Yvonne got the children she always wanted and she was OK; if you could call ending up with Ron as a husband, OK. Gary stood up and wiped the tears from his eyes, he didn't want to look anymore.

He wandered around the flat looking for something neutral to look at that was interesting as well. Unfortunately Xavier was very much into history and social theory, philosophy and all that, his bookcase was a nightmare as far as Gary was concerned. In amongst the books Gary didn't want to know about were a few dog-eared paperbacks, the few that Ron had owned. He fingered at the 1940s paper creeping out from behind the bookcases. It was strange, Ron had painted the whole place orange, it must have been decorated several times over the years but this one wall was half stripped and hidden by furniture.

Xavier came out of the bedroom and called out his name making him jump worse than when a bomb went off in the 1940s.

"Want to come through and listen to some music with me?" he asked.

Gary followed Xavier back into the bedroom; things were just upsetting him anyway. Xavier sat on the bed and started to remove his bathrobe and put fresh clothes on. The music was playing quietly but Gary thought it sounded vaguely familiar.

"What is this?" he asked.

"Oh, you must excuse my taste in music, I like all the oldie stuff, it's Ministry Of Sound."

"Oh?"

"When it's late at night I turn the lights off, get the visual on the walls, lie back and listen to this; it's like being stuck in a strange, wild dream or something."

"Yes," said Gary, "I know the feeling." After the joints he had smoked he had to admit it was quite pleasantly hypnotic. He continued to watch Xavier get ready; he was struggling to get his firmly bandaged leg into a pair of smart trousers. Gary got up and knelt at Xavier's feet.

"I know I'm not supposed to mention the subject but I feel a complete idiot just sat here watching," he said sorting out the problem in a second, "Just ask me."

"When something like this happens to you, you can't help but become stupid about it." Xavier explained.

Gary stood up and squeezed him on the shoulder, "You're doing just fine." He lay on the bed and listened to the music with his eyes closed.

"I'll call you when I get to the shoes."

"Hmm," Gary offered as a reply.

Gary must have dozed off, the next thing he knew Xavier was sat on the edge of the bed shaking his shoulder.

"Come on sleepy head, I thought we were going out," Xavier complained good-naturedly.

Gary sat up slowly and saw that Xavier had his shoes on already.

"Oh no, I'm sorry, I'm not much use am I?"

"I'll find something else for you to do in a minute," Xavier promised.

They went through to the lounge and put their jackets on. Xavier didn't pick up the other crutch.

"I think we had better eat first, where do you want to go?" he asked Gary.

"You choose," Gary replied heading for the door. Xavier joined him and Gary opened it gesturing for Xavier to go through first.

"Gary, I do need to ask you something," Xavier began.

"Ask away."

"My hand hurts a lot if I use it too much, when I go out usually, which isn't very often, I have Suzie with me. Instead of using the other crutch I link my arm in hers for support," he explained, "We haven't known each other five minutes but I wondered if you wouldn't mind."

"Linking arms with you? Of course I wouldn't mind," Gary replied. He was feeling very protective of Ron's son, it had begun back in the bar when the 'drinkoes' had come in, he hoped it wasn't going to get him into any more trouble.

The night out was more normal than he could have dared hope for. Xavier took him to an oldies bar, which was different to a retro bar it would seem. Of course Gary couldn't think of a way to ask about it. It was a bizarre experience to be sat in the 21st Century listening to the Ministry and things of that type but he enjoyed it a lot. He rapidly became aware of the fact that there were no gay bars; everywhere was about half straight, half the other. It seemed a bit strange at first but it wasn't something that took a lot of getting used to, especially after the number of joints he had already had that day. There wasn't a sniff of alcohol to be had anywhere, not even wine with their meal; Gary wondered briefly what had happened to the old evil but he was having too good a time to get grieved about it.

There was a lot more uniform around during the evening. The lack of it when he arrived would have been down to duty hours he presumed. He hoped dearly that somebody was still keeping watch. Belatedly, he realised that he had strayed a rather considerable distance away from the time portal; the thought stayed in his head a few seconds before it was gone again. They were sat at a table in some bar or other. This one was more like a nightclub; it had a dance floor where a few sad souls were trying to emulate a 20th century night out with moderate success. Gary briefly reflected that this was about the same as going to a granny's tea dance back home.

Gary had got them a decent seat then gone to the bar for smokes and coke. The air was thick with smoke, no need for a dry ice machine in this disco. When he got back to Xavier he was looking tired.

"Are you ok?" he asked as he lighted Xavier's joint.

"Yep," he smiled, "Just very happy and very relaxed."

"Me too," Gary smiled back taking a long drink of coke.

"Let's just stay here for a while though, it's one of my favourites." Xavier suggested.

"And your leg will be aching if you walk too much further," Gary added.

"Yep, it will," Xavier said then paused before continuing, "You know, I don't mind most of the time, I couldn't dance before; now I've got a decent excuse."

"I don't think they can either," Gary joked indicating at the mass of writhing bodies on the dance floor, " A bit of shrapnel might be an improvement".

Xavier laughed, Gary liked it very much when people laughed at his jokes. They sat back, not talking for a while and letting the euphoric trance of 1999 wash over them.

It wasn't long though before Xavier started to fidget. He kept moving his leg as if he couldn't get comfortable.

"Come on, I'll walk you home now," Gary insisted, he was feeling very strongly paternal; it was getting worse with each additional joint.

"Oh Gary," he pleaded almost like a child, "I don't get out that often, please let's stay a bit longer."

"No I think you should go home now," Gary persisted.

Xavier looked crushed at this.

"Come on, don't be like this," Gary said putting his arm round Xavier rather like his sister had earlier, "There's always tomorrow night."

"Promise for tomorrow?" Xavier asked his face already lighting up.

"Yep, tomorrow night for definite," Gary promised.

Xavier didn't need any persuading to leave after that, they got a taxi from the end of the street. Since they had gone out quite early it had only just gone ten o'clock.

The taxi dropped them at the door to the flats; it had been a lot better than trying to pick their way home in complete darkness. Around the clubs there was a bit of light, they weren't residential areas, which were required to keep a complete blackout much earlier in the evening. Gary took Xavier's arm as he got out of the taxi. His leg was hurting him but Gary had been temporarily forbidden from mentioning it; Xavier said that he was an old fuss but he loved it really. They approached the hallway taking the steps slowly.

"Don't you think of running away just because I'm going to have to lie down," Xavier warned in good humour, "You're on tea duties."

"I'm yours for the night," Gary offered without reservation.

"You don't have to go running back to base or anything?" Xavier asked.

"Nope, don't have to run anywhere."

"Then the night has just begun." Xavier promised smiling.

Gary took the key from Xavier and negotiated the door for him. They went straight through to the bedroom where Xavier immediately slumped on the bed in relief. Gary lifted his leg up and he lay flat on his back struggling to get his coat off whilst laughing.

"Help, I'm stuck," he said to Gary still laughing.

Gary smiled in wonder at Ron's son and shook his head in mock disapproval. "Tea?"

Xavier calmed slightly but was still twisted up in his jacket, "Yep, I would love one," he said, "I'll have something special waiting for you when you get back."

Gary put his hands in his pockets and raised an enquiring eyebrow. Xavier took a packet out from underneath one of the pillows and smiled, "Special Six."

"Oh," Gary said appearing to look greatly impressed even though he didn't know what the hell Xavier was talking about, "I'll be back just as soon as I can."

Gary kept his word, he returned just as quickly as he could. Out in the rest of the flat there was nothing but memories; remnants of a past that was still a future and some stuff that was past even to him. He didn't want to be there now. He wanted Xavier to show him what he had meant by putting the visuals on and he wanted some more smokes before it turned illegal again. More than all this, he wanted to make Xavier smile; so removed from his father; Xavier was devoid of bitterness despite what he had been through.

When he got back with the tea Xavier was laid on the bed with his head propped up on two pillows. He had successfully managed the jacket and in addition had sorted some music out too. Gary found he had no need to ask about the visuals since psychedelic blobs of colour where now dancing over the plain white painted walls. The blobs jumped and changed shape to the music; it was totally bizarre but not at all unpleasant due to the choice of colour. Xavier gestured for Gary to join him on the bed.

"Can you do massage Gary?" Xavier asked out of the blue while they had been drinking their tea in silence.

"A little, a friend showed me a few times," he answered meaning that his wife Yvonne had taught him.

"My mother taught me how to do it but you can't really do it on yourself," Xavier added.

Gary closed his eyes for a few seconds and just listened to the music, this was all too weird.

"My sister Suzie," Xavier continued, "Does it on my leg occasionally."

Gary came back into the conversation, it wasn't Xavier's fault he was getting freaked out, "After you've been out for the night?" he asked.

"Yep."

"You want me to do it too?

Xavier smiled a 'yes' and held up the Special Six and a bottle of scented oil.

Gary flexed his fingers expressively, "Just leave the master to his work."

Xavier lit him a Special Six and handed him both that and the oil. Gary smoked the joint as he unwound the bandages from Xavier's leg. He soon discovered that the Special in Special Six was the strength of them and a slightly different effect, which tied in nicely with the progression of the evening. Gary tried his best to adapt what he knew to a different part of the body, he was more used to doing Yvonne's shoulders and back.

"You wouldn't think that would do as much as it does but it really is wonderful," Xavier commented appreciatively. He lit up a Special Six too.

Gary was finding that the joint was really going to his head; it was as if both he and Xavier were inside the music. Xavier closed his eyes with the joint in his mouth as Gary continued his work.

"That is so much better," he said just over the top of the music.

"I bet your mother never showed you how to do this," Gary said with a certain amount of mischief in his eyes. He had just recalled the reflexology thing that Yvonne had shown him; he took Xavier's foot and rubbed his thumbs into the correct position on the sole. It had the desired effect.

"No," Xavier laughed, "Strangely, she didn't."

"It's good isn't it, unfortunately it's another thing you can't do yourself."

"I think I should do something for you now, you've done so much for me." Xavier offered.

Gary was game for that, "Where do you want me?" he asked.

"Just lie on your front," Xavier said flexing his fingers the way Gary had; he did as he was told.

It soon became apparent to Gary that he was in the hands of the real expert and that Special Six had a very long lasting effect. His head was swimming in a dream along with the music, he couldn't get out and he didn't want to. After a while he ended up on his back with Xavier still doing his stuff, he couldn't recall having turned over.

"What is this music?" Gary asked.

"Red Sun Rising, do you like this one?"

"Hmm."

Gary lay with his eyes open looking at the blobs dance and breathing deeply as Xavier's hands worked on his chest. He might as well have been on another planet, he felt at least as if he were floating above the bed. Xavier leant closer over him.

"Do you want to go further?" he asked Gary in a whisper, to Gary he sounded like part of the music.

"Yes," Gary answered in a whisper too.

"You do know what I mean don't you?" Xavier enquired as he kissed him lightly on the neck.

"When in Rome," Gary replied.

"Hmm?"

Gary placed his hand on the back of Xavier's head and ran his fingers through his hair, "Yes, it means yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

Xavier continued to kiss his neck, "When do you want me to stop, Gary? How long do you want me to be doing this?"

Gary took a very deep breath, "How long have you got?"

"Until forever fades away." He whispered echoing the words of the music that were playing.


	3. Here's A Lot Of Danger

Part Three - Here's A Lot Of Danger

A siren was ringing in Gary's ears, it felt like a nightmare and he shook his head but it wouldn't go away. He lifted his head and looked towards the window, the darkness of the blackout was there and he now knew he was definitely awake. The air-raid siren, for that was what it was, still persisted. He slumped back down on the pillow, he knew they hadn't bombed his Mayfair block, surely if he slept through this one warning it wouldn't make any difference. He was warm and comfortable and had a silently sleeping warm body snuggled up against him, the last thing he wanted to do was wake up and spend the night amongst neighbours in a cold basement. But then there shouldn't be any raids at all, the war would be over in two month's time, D-Day had already happened. He turned away from the window intending to go back to sleep, his eyes fell upon the eerie glow of the electronic equipment in the corner of the room and then to the person lying next to him. Suddenly he was very much awake.

"Shit!" he hissed under his breath and wriggled up onto an elbow, "Wrong bloody war."

He looked down at Xavier sleeping soundly beside him, it was surprising how well he could see from just the lights on the music machine. His original plan of sneaking off through the portal was blown to the wind. He was miles away in Mayfair and he had completely lost his anonymity. What was he to do, he couldn't just get out of bed, get dressed and wander through the streets in the middle of a raid. He couldn't walk out and leave Xavier asleep in his bed. If you excused the bigamy and the fact that he had just cheated on both his wives, he wasn't that much of a shit. He had always detested the idea of the 'note by the bed' routine; with bombs falling it was inconceivably insulting. Come to think of it, he couldn't have cheated; both his wives were dead.

Most importantly, for once Gary didn't know that everything would be all right, for all he knew Xavier would die if he left him. For all he knew they were about to die anyway. How could he ever face Ron again if he abandoned his son? There was also the slightly significant fact that he cared about Xavier too.

Gary shook Xavier's shoulder before any more time was wasted, the air-raid siren still wailed in the darkness.

"Xavier!" Gary called, "Come on, get up, air raid."

There was no response; Gary shook him again.

"Hmm?" Xavier responded dreamily.

"Air raid," Gary informed him in a firm, urgent voice, "Get up, come on."

Xavier took a deep sigh and pulled the duvet up to his chin, "Oh do calm down Gary," He said still half asleep, "They fly one plane over to set the sirens off then they go away. It's all made to be of maximum inconvenience, make everybody tired during the day to lower morale. It would be much more patriotic of you if you just went back to sleep."

So, there hadn't been any proper raids but some time had to be the first time. Gary was tempted to go back to sleep but he couldn't risk it.

"I think this one might be different, it might be a real raid," Gary said, "Please get up and get dressed."

"How do you know? Just go to sleep Gary."

"Connections, with my war work," Gary explained in his usual way, "Please Xavier just get up and come down to the shelter with me."

Xavier lifted his head up and looked at Gary, "You're not going to leave me in peace are you?"

Gary smiled, "Not a chance."

Xavier groaned in sleepy good humour and pulled himself upright, "You're going to have to bandage my leg up again."

"It's OK, not a problem," Gary reassured, he was starting to get too hyped up in his urgency; he was bordering on panic but managed to keep it under control.

Gary got up and dressed himself then put the light on. The siren was still going and even Xavier was starting to look worried.

"It's usually stopped by now," he said looking at the plain black blackout screen like he could see beyond it, "Just enough time to rush downstairs then you have to come straight back up again."

Gary pulled back the duvet and got to work with the bandages, Xavier rubbed his left hand in a rather worried repetitive manner.

Gary was half finished and going as quickly as he could when a loud thundering bang came from somewhere up the street. The glass rattled in the window frames and the whole building shook. Gary knew those things very well and Xavier had managed to figure it out well enough, it was a bomb and too close for comfort. Gary looked up from his work and found that Xavier had turned the most shocking shade of pale; he looked toward the window in panic. There was more to this than fright though, it wasn't surprising in someone who had been injured by an explosion in this very war. Gary hurried up with the bandaging so they could get down below.

More bombs dropped but they were a little further away, Xavier was frozen in one position, detached somehow. Gary put his robe round his shoulders and persuaded him to get his arms into it, he still stared towards the window. He tried to get Xavier to take hold of the crutch in his right hand. Then he swung his legs onto the floor, took his arm and pulled him to his feet. He passively went along with Gary's wishes but wouldn't take his eyes off the window.

Gary managed to get Xavier out of the bedroom and they headed for the door. Gary had grabbed the duvet on the way out since there was a chance they would be gone some time. As they reached the door another bomb dropped close by. This one was even nearer, the glass in the hallway window shattered and sprayed against the blackout board. The force of the blast sent a gush of wind through the flat and Xavier lost his balance. Gary grabbed him and held him close. Xavier's nerve was gone, he whimpered like a frightened puppy and asked Gary to make it go away over and over, he wouldn't go forward he just kept pulling back towards the bedroom.

Gary pressed the crutch back into Xavier's hand and shouted at him.

"The only way to safety is out that door and down the stairs, now move it!" Gary insisted hoping he was doing the right thing. He pulled on Xavier's left arm and he resisted till it started to hurt too much, it had been badly injured all the way up to his shoulder; Gary had seen the scars to prove it, his shoulder had actually been broken too. He was hurting him on purpose but at least it got him walking forward again. They started on the stairs, as the wails of fire-engine sirens got nearer. The services were risking their necks; there were still bombs dropping all around them. Gary hoped the basement still served as the shelter, he didn't fancy having to take Xavier outside.

They were directed to the basement, Gary almost felt relieved. He would have been very encouraged if it wasn't for the fact that he knew that a bomb could easily penetrate as deep as they were. The basement was furnished with an oddment of chairs, somebody immediately gave up one of the more comfortable ones for Xavier, Gary dropped him into it and popped the duvet on top of him. He grabbed it and pulled it up round his chin.

Gary perched on the arm of the chair beside Xavier, the basement was filling up quickly and there was nowhere else to sit. Xavier immediately leaned towards him and clung to him with his right arm round Gary's waist. His left hung loosely at his side. Gary put a reassuring arm round him,

"I'm sorry I had to do that," Gary said but Xavier only had ears for the rumbling outside.

In a way Gary was quite glad that Xavier had freaked out, it saved him the job. In helping him, Gary had managed to stay on top of things and get them into the shelter. Now that the action was over his hands began to shake, it was at moments like these that a stiff whiskey would normally have been the order of the day. He wished that he had grabbed the smokes now, Xavier would have benefited from one of those.

It seemed like forever before the 'all-clear' sounded but it mustn't have been longer than half an hour. Some brave soul went upstairs and came back to report that their building still stood, it had not been damaged beyond having the windows blown out. Xavier took some persuading to go back upstairs but as the silence continued he started to relax a little and become more like his usual self again.

When they got back to the flat there was a strong breeze blowing through the blown out windows. Gary took down the blackout board, which was pierced with a hundred fragments of shattered glass and observed the wreckage of the city that the bombers had left behind. As the fires blazed lighting up the sky with a brightness, which hadn't been seen since the start of war, the whole sight took on a rather surreal and detached look; more like watching a movie than looking out of the window. Even Xavier could manage to watch it but with an element of deep sadness in his voice when he eventually spoke.

"Oh Gary, what have they done?" he asked.

"Don't worry," Gary said rubbing Xavier's arm, "We'll win, we always do, we don't need the Americans to help us out, whenever they might decide to join us."

"Gary, what kind of secret agent are you? The Americans are on the other side as everybody in the entire universe knows."

"Ah well exactly, yes," Gary said quickly thinking on his feet, "And the fact that you noticed my mistake proves that you are out of shock."

"Oh I see," Xavier said watching the fire again, "Very cute."

The Americans are on the other side, Gary thought, it was his turn to have a panic. How could he hope to reassure Xavier in the face of that revelation? Gary felt woefully inadequate, he was used to being the knight in shining armour, and now all he had to offer were his tea making skills, at least Xavier liked tea.

Gary had eventually got Xavier off to sleep by making him smoke two Special Six while he massaged his shoulders. Now it was just after dawn and he was still sleeping beside him. Gary hadn't been able to sleep so easily, he needed to keep awake to listen out for further air raid warnings. Xavier's sleep had not been peaceful but at least he had got some rest.

Gary went to the lounge window having retrieved a regular cigarette from his jacket. He lit it and watched the skyline of London as he smoked. Buildings were still on fire all over the city, he couldn't see St Paul's Cathedral from Mayfair, too many other buildings in the way even in the past. He hoped it stood proud still amongst the ashes and wreckage, just as it had in 1941. It had become a symbol of national resistance then and he wished it could do the job again. Once more Britain stood alone. It was overwhelmingly sad to be stood watching the devastation as the red sun rose into the sky but what a beautiful sunrise it was.

He assumed that Xavier would have to get up to get ready for work soon so he pulled himself away from the window to make him some tea. He soon discovered that nothing electrical would work, the computer, the kettle; everything was dead.

"Not much changes," Gary commented as he put a pan onto the gas stove, there was no gas. He had to admit he was impressed by Xavier's retro efforts, everything looked old and genuine, he even thought he recognised a few bits. Well the kitchen might as well be an antique, nothing at all worked.

Gary went back through to the bedroom to wake Xavier up and tell him the bad news. He took the bit about there being no tea the worst, next in line was the lack of hot running water. He looked like he could do with a hot bath and a couple of hours more sleep. Xavier reluctantly got up when Gary reminded him about work and followed him through to the kitchen. He offered to prepare breakfast and Xavier successfully directed him round the cupboards. They sat together to eat at the table where the day before they had drunk tea.

"You're very quiet this morning, are you OK?" Xavier asked.

"I'm just tired. Are you OK now?" Gary asked with concern.

"Yep, I'm fine" Xavier replied staring at the table, "I'm so sorry about last night, I didn't know it was going to happen like that, I thought I would be alright but it was the first time and I kind of lost it."

"It's OK, not unusual considering."

Xavier smiled, "Thanks for not running a mile."

"Well, I wasn't in a hurry to go outside," Gary joked.

"Are we still on for tonight?" Xavier asked urgently.

Gary was surprised, "Yes, of course we are, I promised didn't I?"

"Yes, you did."

"Well then?"

Xavier looked for a minute as if he was going to comment on the quality of a promise then thought better of it. "I just thought you might have to return to base, go into work or whatever you secret guys do."

"Because of the bombing? No, might have to call in briefly. That business outside could hardly be described as a secret though could it?"

Xavier laughed which had been Gary's intention.

"Let them drop bombs, let's not let it get to us. I had a lovely evening yesterday and I intend to see it repeated."

"So we're definitely going out then?" Xavier asked, he was still not convinced for some reason.

"Yes, we are I promise," Gary stated with a firm voice, "OK?"

"Yea, OK," Xavier responded still sounding like he was unsure.


	4. Everything Will Be Perfect

**Part Four – Everything Will Be Perfect, Tonight And Forever.**

An hour later Gary and Xavier were on their way back to Blitz And Pieces Bar. They were surprised to find that the Underground was working. Somebody must have been up all night prioritising the distribution of electricity to ensure that the only form of transport that wasn't affected by the roads being blocked still operated. The going was slow but they weren't complaining. As they reached the East End Gary was surprised to find that it was virtually unscathed, things had changed a lot since the last Blitz.

Once Xavier was installed in work with one of the staff to help on a weekday, Gary made his excuses and took a brief visit 'back to base'. He was desperately in need of a hot shower and his shop back in the past was the best place to get one. He left by the bar door and went round the back. With some difficulty he managed to get over the wall further down from where the portal was, into the joined together yard. Gary took a deep breath and walked through the portal all the time hoping that Ron wasn't on the other side wanting to know where he had been.

The shop was empty and there was no sign that anybody had been there looking for him, Gary breathed a sigh of relief and headed for the shower. He felt a bit of a shit sneaking back to the present like this, he would have brought Xavier back with him if he could. After a very rejuvenating shower Gary had a hunt in his cupboard for some spare clothes. There was only the old brown suit that Gary used for the past; it was a timeless item, it would just have to serve. Question was, did he go for the whole raincoat and hat thing; why not, might as well look completely ridiculous.

Gary went to sit in the shop for a while; he just had to kill a bit of time to make his trip back to base look realistic. He thought better of it when he realised that either Ron or Yvonne could suddenly appear and whisk him off to other commitments. He was much better off going for a walk in the present, maybe, he thought, he could pick up Xavier a little present to ease the toll of the war. Maybe a rather nice mint condition antique would please or a kettle that worked after an air raid maybe. Gary decided on the antique, his chances of impressing on the gadget front were very slim.

After an hour walking round Marks and Spencer Gary wandered into a record shop. This was so much more difficult than the past, he didn't know whether to buy a CD or not, he had no idea how Xavier's machine worked; he had never seen what the music was stored on. He flicked through the compilation albums absentmindedly, Ibiza this, Ibiza that. This was hopeless.

He went into a large newsagent next and picked up a copy of 'Ministry' the Ministry Of Sound's very own magazine. He took a sniff of the pages, it would never do; it smelled like it had been printed the day before which it probably had. Disheartened, Gary headed back to Blitz and Pieces.

He kept thinking as he walked back. He could take Xavier some whisky although he didn't know what the deal was with that. If alcohol was illegal he didn't want to go getting him into trouble. He let himself into the shop and had a good look at the stock; if only he hadn't taken so much to the antique shop that morning, there might have been something suitable amongst that lot.

Gary was about to give up and go back to the future when his eyes rested on a 1930s radio perched on one of the shelves. Reg had been throwing it out in the past after trying to fix it. He had brought it back thinking that even a broken radio might sell for something. It was still there and Xavier would receive broadcasts differently anyway, it wouldn't matter that it wouldn't work. He could place it on the mantelpiece and it would complement the look he had already gone for. Gary smiled a smug smile, he could deal with the future, not a problem; it just needed some extra thought.

He was still smiling to himself as he passed through the portal cradling the radio in his arms. Only once he was back in the future did he realise he was going to have to get it over the wall somehow. As if he needed proof that his visit to the future was meant to be, the waves parted before him. A recent delivery of stock meant that the adjacent gate was not locked; he easily passed through.

He went round the front only to find the door to the bar was locked. Looking through the window Gary found Xavier at his seat behind the bar his head in one hand as he studied some ledgers on the bar, the accounts he presumed by the grim expression. He knocked on the glass, Xavier looked up to see him and Gary had the pleasure of seeing him very much cheered up.

Xavier had to come to unlock the door himself.

"What's going on? Where is everybody?" Gary asked as Xavier got back on the stool. He placed the radio on the bar.

"I had to let Lucy go home sick, she's been up all night," Xavier answered glancing briefly at the books but not really taking them in, "I just locked the door till we open, easier to enforce entry that way."

"But you've been up all night too," Gary observed.

"I am the owner, I have no choice; I have to be here." Xavier explained with a shrug of his shoulders and looking very tired, "If the bombers had only knocked the electricity off in this part of town we could have locked up and gone home."

"Don't wish for it, it may happen soon enough."

"Really, you think so? You don't think that last night was an isolated thing?"

"I wouldn't have thought so," Gary said wishing he were doing more to cheer Xavier up.

Xavier suddenly noticed the large Bakelite box on his bar, "What's that then?" he asked.

"That is an early 20th century radio I picked up on the way back," Gary said with a smile.

"Wow, I've never seen one of these things where did you get it?"

"That antiques shop you told me about yesterday, I was just passing and it jumped out at me."

"It's fantastic, can't be many of these around," Xavier said turning it round to have a good look.

"Would look great in your apartment too," Gary added.

"You're not about to tell me you can't go out tonight are you?" Xavier asked with a grave face as he thought of it.

It wasn't quite the reaction Gary looking for, Xavier was such a cynic, "No, of course not, I just thought it would be nice."

"Good," Xavier said cheering right up again, "It is a very nice radio."

"You do look a bit too tired to be going out though," Gary observed.

"No Gary, stop it, I'm fine," Xavier said firmly, "If you want out of tonight you had better just say so."

Xavier was really tired, Gary thought, he was so up and down, so suspicious and eager to think the worst. When had he ever let anybody down when he had promised? OK, well yea, but when had he ever let Xavier down, more to the point.

"I am here till you want rid of me," Gary re-assured, "Tomorrow is a different matter, but today I am all yours."

"Tomorrow you have to go away?"

"Yes, tomorrow I have to be back at work big time."

"You're going away?"

"Yes, I have to go away."

"OK, let's make tonight a good one then," Xavier said with the sigh of someone attuned to the logistics of war.

"I certainly will do my best to make it a really good night although I really think we should skip the clubs and just stay in."

"Order in some food and stuff?" Xavier suggested.

"Yep," Gary replied, "Nice and relaxing, after all, we might be up again tonight with the bombs."

"You've got a deal," Xavier said smiling and handing him a joint.

As lunchtime approached it got a lot busier and Gary found himself helping behind the bar. At least he was trying to help, he just couldn't remember where things were and Xavier was no help, he thought it was hilarious. He did feel unconditionally appreciated though, something he hadn't experienced in a while. He did enjoy it in a funny sort of way but he was glad when the girls turned up and they could go, he enjoyed being alone with Xavier more. Tonight it was slightly different though; they had been working all day so he was in a completely lucid state of mind, it made him feel nervous.

Xavier picked up a selection of smokes to take home including a whole packet of 20 Special Six. The Special Six caused something of a sensation amongst the girls and Gary knew why now, it made him feel even more nervous. He picked the radio up and held it underneath his left arm and offered the other one to Xavier.

"Have a nice night boys," One of the girls called out to them as they left, Gary coloured violently.

They walked to the tube in virtual silence only to find that it was inexplicably not running. However a printed poster told them that the next one up the line was running trains on to the rest of the stations.

"It defies logic," Xavier commented, he looked worn out. They started walking to the next station.

"You going to be OK?" Gary asked.

Xavier nodded, "I've done it before, they're always doing this, doubt it has anything to do with the bombs."

They walked on through the east end, a lot of it Gary recognised; it was very weird. He kept thinking he might run into Yvonne or something, it wasn't a feeling he was used to getting in the past. As they walked Gary felt that Xavier was leaning on his arm more, he wished it wasn't so far.

When they got to the station Xavier wanted to sit down for a minute so they chose the most comfortable wall.

"I wish you could stay with me," Xavier said suddenly as they sat in silence.

Gary didn't know how to reply.

"This damn war," Xavier continued, "Everybody getting separated and sent off God knows where all the time." He lit a joint.

"You can't light that in the blackout," Gary warned as Xavier had warned him the night before.

"Stuff it," Xavier replied and Gary couldn't have agreed more.

Eventually they got back to Mayfair on the tube and Gary made tea whilst Xavier ordered their meal. The radio took up a proud place on the mantelpiece. During the day somebody had been in to fix the windows so the apartment was nice and warm for them. The whole time they were eating the meal Gary was worrying about what he had got himself into. As if bigamy wasn't enough he had gone and got himself into another relationship. A relationship he couldn't even tell Ron about, how on earth was he going to cope. Somehow lying to Xavier about his 'war work' seemed worse; he couldn't get his head round it. It was as if he felt Xavier was seeing right through his lies and merely saying nothing; he was losing his grip. He wished that Xavier would hand out the joints then he could smoke into another world, do whatever took his fancy and not worry about it.

Xavier was looking at Gary, "What's the matter?" he asked in a concerned voice, "You've been so quiet."

Gary immediately felt the guilt pile up, it wasn't Xavier's fault he was a confused mess.

"You don't regret last night do you?" Xavier asked, "I'll understand if you want to leave." Although he said he would understand he looked as though he would be devastated.

"No," Gary said firmly, "I don't regret it at all, it's just been a long time."

"So you don't fancy me enough without the drugs?" Xavier accused, he looked downtrodden and betrayed, it was partly down to fatigue but he also had a point as far as he could see.

Think about it, Gary thought, it wasn't as if anybody in the past needed to find out about this, as if anybody would believe him. Ron, Yvonne and Phoebe were all away, why would they guess that this could happen. Ron was used to being told the truth about everything, he wouldn't suspect one lie; a lie which would sound like his usual activities. The war was nearly over in the past, he would have to make some serious choices soon and stick with them. Just one more fling as a time traveller, just the one more, after all, he had never made it with Yvonne's look-alike in the 19th. He looked to Xavier and tried to swallow his nerves, nerves were all that was stopping him; Xavier thought he didn't care.

"I can do it without Special Six, I would have done last night but we were smoking them anyway," Gary said in a moody voice in mock offence at Xavier's accusation.

"Come sit with me then," Xavier said patting the seat next to him on the sofa and dimming the lights.

Gary went to sit next to Xavier.

"Prove it," Xavier said.

Gary couldn't move, he tried but nothing happened.

Xavier undid his tie and unbuttoned his shirt then ran his hands over his shoulders pulling Gary towards him.

"Not here, in the bedroom with the music on," Gary suggested.

Xavier smiled, "You old fashioned thing!"

"Oh, you have no idea," Gary said pulling Xavier to his feet. He nearly killed himself trying to pick him up and Xavier nearly died laughing.

"Oh God, you are something," Xavier managed to gasp.

"Stop it, you're spoiling the mood," Gary said trying to be stern but laughing himself now.

"What mood? You're nervous as hell," Xavier observed holding on to him with one arm over Gary's shoulder and the other round his waist.

"Of course I am, do you think I do this every day?"

"No, I don't," Xavier said, "I just thought for a while that you're standoffishness today was Gary wanting to get away. I didn't want to be a one night thing, cast aside with the dawn."

"I don't do that, I have to go away, but you're not a one night thing,"

Xavier smiled ruefully, "No, I'm a two night thing."

"I would stay longer if I could," Gary insisted and meaning it.

"You would?" Xavier asked happily surprised.

"Yes, I would," Gary said trying to pick Xavier up again.

"Stop," Xavier said laughing again, "You'll hurt yourself."

Somehow Gary managed it and they got to the bedroom, he sat Xavier on the edge and nearly fell over on top of him. Xavier was still laughing as he reached over and picked up the packet of Special Six and held one out to Gary.

"No," Gary said, "I said I wouldn't."

"You've told me all I need to know," Xavier told him lighting one for himself, "It's OK now."

"Everything will be perfect tonight," Gary enthused.

Xavier gave Gary a look that he would later know the meaning of, "Doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be tonight." He leant over and turned the music on.


	5. Don't Say Goodbye

Part Five - Don't Say Goodbye, Leave The Past Behind

Gary came back with the tea that he had been sent to fetch and Xavier handed him the joint he had been promised. Gary took a long drag and smiled a happy smile. Xavier looked a lot happier now too, he was positively glowing; he put his joint down and sat up in bed ready to accept his tea.

"You are quite something Gary Sparrow," Xavier said after he had taken his first sip.

Gary froze, "I never told you my surname was Sparrow," he blurted out, "Did I? No I definitely didn't. What is this?"

Xavier looked into his tea, "No you didn't Gary," he said turning the cup round in his hands.

"You don't deny it?"

"Why should I? You didn't tell me your surname was Sparrow," Xavier looked up, "You didn't tell me that you're a time traveller or that you've got two wives and a kid either, but hey, I'm not going to make an issue out of it."

Gary stood frozen to the spot making a very good impression of a bemused fish, the joint smouldering unattended in his hand.

"Oh, come on Gary, you didn't think Ron could go through life without telling somebody before he died, I grew up on Gary Sparrow stories," Xavier said to break the silence, to make Gary snap out of it, "You were my 'Flash Gordon'."

Gary only looked more horrified, "This entire visit has been something you and your father cooked up between you, hasn't it?" Gary spluttered eventually.

"Some of it, yes," Xavier admitted, "It was no coincidence that I happen to own a bar called 'Blitz and Pieces' right where your shop used to be but didn't it help to walk straight into a friendly face?"

"Friendly? Oh yes, very friendly," Gary said almost to himself, his head still reeling from the revelation, "I have to go," he announced grabbing his coat and slinging it over his shoulder, he picked his hat up and turned to leave.

"Gary, you can't go out there," Xavier pleaded.

"Watch me," Gary insisted, misunderstanding Xavier's meaning. He left the bedroom and was heading for the door.

Xavier couldn't chase after him, "Gary you can't go out alone," he shouted after him, "They'll shoot you."

To Xavier's relief Gary re-appeared at the bedroom door, "Why would they want to shoot me?" he asked.

"Gary, you can't bum around the future like you're used to doing in the past, it's a whole different animal."

"How?" Gary demanded.

"All people of my sister's age and over were micro chipped at birth, everybody else got it done at their doctor's; it was compulsory. If you don't have one, they will shoot you, no questions."

"So how come I've been wandering around all this time? Nobody has even been suspicious."

"They random check." Xavier explained, "During the day and at the clubs it's OK, it's crowded, the chances of them picking you are very slim. If you go out on your own after dark, chances are you won't be so lucky."

Gary paced the floor, "So I'm stuck here with you till tomorrow? I have to get back."

"You weren't so keen to get back before."

"Yes, well things have changed slightly since then haven't they?" Gary said accusingly.

"So that's it, is it? One small problem, one thing not going your way and you're stomping up and down, huffing and puffing, making it all out to be my fault like nothing we've done so far meant anything to you. Well that's just great Gary Sparrow." Xavier shouted at him then immediately regretted it, "Come sit down beside me Gary, let me explain," he added in a pleading voice.

Gary stood looking at Xavier for a few minutes before he sighed and took a seat next to him on the bed, Xavier was wrapped in the duvet. Gary buried his head in his hands and tried to get a grip on things, "I'm sorry," he said, "I just can't get my head round it."

"It's OK, my father said you might be like this," Xavier replied, "You're just not used to getting found out, must have been quite a shock."

"So when did you know it was me?" Gary asked, "Were you expecting me?"

Xavier put an arm round Gary, "I'll tell you lots of things that you couldn't ask me about before, but you must do two things for me."

"Name it," Gary said looking mentally exhausted.

"Most importantly, there are things I mustn't tell you, I ask that you don't pressure me on it if I say no."

"OK, I understand that."

"Secondly, you must promise to keep calm and not go trying to run off into the night again."

"You won me over on that one," Gary replied as he started to relax a bit.

Xavier picked their mugs of tea up and handed Gary his.

"Get back into bed Gary and drink your tea," he commanded.

Gary did as he was told, all along he had wanted to know what had happened, now was his chance.

"So tell me your story, where you just sitting there waiting for me?" Gary asked once he had got himself comfortably propped up on a few pillows next to Xavier.

"My father warned me about your limitless ego," Xavier replied, he couldn't help laughing, "But no, I wasn't just sat there waiting for you. My father, Ron, didn't know if you had come through or not."

"He guessed I might have done?"

"As he got older, yes, certain things happened to lead him to believe you might have done."

"What things?" Gary interrupted eagerly.

Xavier handed him a joint, "Drink your tea, smoke that and let me tell you my story."

"OK, sorry," Gary apologised taking the light.

"Well as I said, I grew up on Gary Sparrow stories, it was a little secret I shared with my father, mother caught us once and completely flipped; of course I didn't know why then," Xavier reminisced, "They were just stories, very bizarre fairy stories."

"I thought you said your parents never fought," Gary queried.

"Oh, she didn't flip like angry or anything, well only for a minute or two," Xavier said lighting a joint himself, "They didn't do it front of me but I could hear muffled voices, my mother shouted something at my father, he shouted something back and then my mother burst into tears. I know I said they never touched either but when I went downstairs they were clung together as if their lives depended on it, my mother sobbing loudly as my father held her in his arms. I should amend my statement to say that that was the only time I saw them touch each other."

Gary wiped a tear from his eye, the thought of Yvonne and Ron bonded forever by mutual grief was just too much for him, "What happened next, you must have come to believe it somehow?" he asked to move Xavier on.

"Yep, when my father found out that he was dying he waited till we were quite alone and told me that it was all true, I reacted in the usual way, complete disbelief. He told me everything then, he couldn't prove it of course, he had to convince me. I didn't believe him, not really, but I gave him the impression that I did; he was dying after all. He left me a set of detailed instructions and he left me the apartment and the bar. It was crazy, I thought he was crazy; I had already started returning the flat back to 1940s style since I wanted to anyway but I also had to keep a retro name for the bar even though it wasn't retro. You have no idea how much trouble you get with drinkoes over that."

"Can I ask you something?" Gary said seeing his opportunity, "What is retro and what are drinkoes?"

"Oh, sorry, that's after your time isn't it, ok briefly; A retro bar is one that sells alcohol underneath the counter, it's against the law so it has to be mixed with coke or whatever and a bar is only recognisable through the name of it, hence my trouble. They are raided quite frequently, also a problem of mine. A drinkoe is somebody who has been drinking alcohol; if I'm caught with one in my bar I lose my licence and have to close down. So drinkoes tend to get drunk and go wandering into lawful bars just to cause trouble. Although the night you were there, I was very glad they were drinkoes and doubly glad that Suzie was around. If they hadn't been drunk Suzie would have had no jurisdiction over them; they had scanners and they weren't afraid to use them. I would have been OK, my chip has my medical records on it."

"Whereas I would have been in trouble?"

"Yep, bang bang, point blank range," Xavier replied bluntly.

"So my secret agent speech?" Gary enquired.

"Slightly less than completely useless but rather amusing." Xavier replied.

Gary tried very hard not to be offended by Xavier making fun of him, "So when did you believe, when did you know it was me?"

"Not right away, whatever you might think I had arranged; I had no idea who you were when you first came into the bar. All I knew was that I fancied you like crazy and I wanted you to come back," Xavier said starting feel a bit self conscious in the light of Gary's apparent emotional withdrawal, he looked up and Gary smiled back, his heart was warmed by the sight, "Anyway," Xavier continued colouring violently, "We didn't know how wide the difference would be in this direction even if you did figure it out so it wasn't till you pulled that secret agent routine and told me that your name was Gary that I knew. Even then I could hardly believe it. The next morning when you went 'back to base' I saw you walk through the fence in the yard on the security camera, that was definitely the moment, I could have dropped through the floor. I thought you had gone for good, that you wouldn't be back after getting caught in an air raid and everything."

Gary bristled at that, "I have never let a little air raid get in my way before."

Xavier reached over and laid his hand on Gary's arm, "I am so glad that you did come back."

"I am glad I came too, it has been quite an adventure." Gary replied taking Xavier's hand in his.

Xavier smiled, "Yes, that's one way of putting it."

"Hey, what would your father say if he could see us now?" Gary joked, "Unless seducing me was all part of the plan?"

"No it wasn't, my father never knew that I would be inclined. Relationships were not something we talked about in our household, besides, he was of an older generation," Xavier explained.

"True," Gary agreed, "He would never have thought I would be inclined either."

"Oh no," Xavier grinned, then took a long drag on his joint, "He always had his suspicions about you."

"What!"

Xavier laughed, "Oh Gary really! Goodbye hugs that lasted just a little too long, that reflexology thing and not to mention that business with the lightning and 'Good Gary'."

"You've got a point I suppose," Gary said huffily sipping at his tea.

"Didn't you wonder why I never asked you anything about yourself, then invited you into my home and shared my bed with you?" Xavier asked.

"No, the drugs didn't make me want to think much."

"Oh Gary, please don't lie to me, I'm not one of your wives."

Gary sighed, "No, it never occurred to me because I'm a selfish, two timing…"

"Three," Xavier corrected.

"Three timing bastard who does nothing but go jumping from one era to the next, wreaking the lives of all around him, satisfied?"

Xavier smiled and squeezed his hand, "Isn't it not better like this? I know all about you and you are still my hero."

"Please don't call me your 'hero', I cheated on your mother."

"But I understand you Gary, you just fall in love wherever you lay your hat. It's not like you don't care about us, your feelings are always genuine aren't they?"

"Yes, they are," Gary replied feeling brought down in spirit, Xavier had exposed him, he had never felt so vulnerable.

They sat for a while, not talking, just being together and thinking. Gary needed the time to let it all sink in; he got up to make another cup of tea for them both. All the services were back on now, amazingly efficient. As he made the tea a question was forming in his mind.

He returned to Xavier as quickly as he could.

"You said that Suzie was a 'bank baby', what did you mean by that?" he asked as soon as he got back into bed.

"It means that either the sperm or the egg, or, in some cases, both, were obtained from the donor bank."

"Suzie looks a bit like Yvonne,"

"Exactly, Yvonne is biologically Suzie's mother but Ron, my father, isn't her father."

"Does she know who her father was?"

"No, it's anonymous." Xavier answered.

"But why? Why isn't Ron the father?"

"I imagine my mother couldn't face it, having a child by him, as I've said, we were a strange family."

"And that's all my fault," Gary said downheartedly.

"Yes, it is," Xavier replied, "Though I imagine you two wouldn't have lasted long anyway, not if you'd given up Phoebe; and no, don't ask me what happened to you."

There was a question which still burning in Gary, "What about you?" he asked.

"Hmm?"

"Were you a bank baby too? You look very much like Ron but I'm not sure about the rest. Do you know who your parents were?"

"I'm not a bank baby as such, I do know who my parents are."

"Well? Your father was Ron?"

"Yes," Xavier replied getting nervous, "My father was Ron."

"And your mother?"

"Was not your ex-wife Yvonne, no, I am what you might call a 'commemorative issue'."

"I'm not with you," Gary said bemused.

"Well," Xavier said wondering how to phrase it, "What they can do is remove the DNA out of an egg and replace it with DNA from any other cell."

Gary swallowed hard, he didn't like the sound of this, "So Yvonne did this?"

"Yep, unknown to my father she requested that her DNA should be removed. He found out later but he was OK about it."

"And replaced it with anonymous DNA?"

"Nope, if you're were going to do that you might as well use a whole egg." Xavier explained.

"So tell me what she did."

"This is one of the things my father asked me not to tell you."

"I insist you tell me, you've got my curiosity now," Gary persisted.

"Are you sure you want to know Gary?"

"Yes!"

"Well," Xavier continued taking a very large gulp of tea, "After you were gone my mother couldn't bare to be looking at your things but she didn't want to let go of them either, so she packed them up and hid them away. Anyway, years later, she and Ron wanted another baby. The business was doing well and Suzie was just about grown up. She had to go to the clinic to authorise the transaction. Only she took out one of the boxes and searched through your 1940s suits until she found a hair and she took it with her."

Gary suddenly went the purest shade of pale that Xavier had ever seen.

"What are you trying to say?" Gary blurted out after a while, "I am your father?"

"No, Gary, you're not," Xavier explained taking a hold of Gary's hand, "You're my mother, biologically at least."

Gary's instinct was to run off again, Xavier was ready this time, he held on to Gary's hand as firmly as he could and pulled him back.

"Let go," Gary commanded.

"You promised me," Xavier persisted, "You can't go out there and get yourself killed."

"Why not? I leave Yvonne don't I?" Gary snapped.

"If you leave here and get shot it will be my fault for telling you, don't make me live with that," Xavier shouted at him.

Gary stopped pulling on Xavier's hand and flopped down on the bed beside him, "What am I going to do?" he whimpered, "How can I leave you now?"

Xavier held Gary's hand in both of his, "You just have to, there's nothing for it, I will be just as OK now as I would have been had I not told you."

"But you're my son," Gary agonised.

"Gary, its just biology. Yvonne was the best mother I could have wished for," Xavier reassured him, "Must have been weird though, watching your son grow up into a mixture of both your husbands."

Gary couldn't help smiling at the thought, what had Yvonne been thinking when she did it?

"You know I could stay, as long as I stayed away in the evening I might be able to get away with it," Gary offered.

"And spend the rest of your time cheating on your two wives, then come home to me for a smoke? It just won't work Gary."

"But I don't want to leave you," Gary said wrapping his arms round Xavier and hugging him close.

"If you don't leave my mother somehow, I will never exist, you can't just use 1999 as a bus-station between the times. Gary, it just isn't going to happen."

Gary lifted his head off Xavier's shoulder, "I know," he said swallowing hard, "I know."

Xavier smiled at him a grim smile, "One more night Gary, you and me, just the one more before you have to go?"

"But its incest," Gary blurted.

Xavier nearly laughed, "Oh come on Gary, its not like you're going to get me pregnant is it?"

"How do I know?"

"Well you won't, come on Gary, one more night?" Xavier persisted.

Gary pushed Xavier back on the pillows and leant over him, he kissed him on the lips.

"Want to smoke?" Xavier asked.

"No, not this time," Gary replied kissing him again.

"If you do really good, I promise not to call you mummy," Xavier teased him.

"Ssh."

"You're the kindest, most wonderful man I've ever met Gary Sparrow, next to my father that is, just wanted you to know that."

"Ssh," Gary repeated to get Xavier to be quiet but he was smiling all the same.

Sometime around three o'clock the air raid siren went off again. At least in the 1940s the bombers kept slightly more reasonable hours. Xavier slept through the call, Gary didn't want to wake him or have to move him but he had no choice. Once he was awake Gary told him to lie still until they actually heard some bombs.

"Just take some deep breaths if you start to panic and then we'll make our way downstairs," Gary said running his hand through Xavier's hair, trying to sooth him, "You must sort something out for after I've gone."

"It's OK Gary," Xavier said quite dreamily, "I'll just hire another maid, or else I'll take a trip to the country house for a while, if I can find somebody to run the bar for me."

"Go for a trip into the country," Gary suggested, "It'll be safer there."

"Yep, could pack up and move there till this damn war is over, maybe I will."

"Leave the past behind," Gary commented.

"The past?" Xavier laughed, "You haven't seen the age of the other place."

"You know what I meant," Gary said softly.

"Yes," Xavier replied suddenly sad, "I know what you mean. I must move on like my parents never managed to do."

"I don't want to think of you hanging onto what has gone before and missing out on opportunities that come your way."

"Like my parents?" Xavier asked, "You know it all sounds so weird but they were happy in their own way, they just kept some stuff in boxes and never forgot. They were the only ones who knew, they became for each other the only person that would understand."

"And who can you share this with Xavier?"

"We have some animals in the country who are really good listeners, non-judgemental," Xavier joked.

"Can't you talk to your sister?"

"No, she doesn't think much of you at all, she's very much like her mother," Xavier reflected, "Don't you worry about me, I'll be fine, I knew you would leave me the second I knew who you were; it isn't a shock to me."

"And I knew I was leaving before I started anything with you. What does that make me?"

"A cheat and a rat but I knew that too."

"I can't hide with you," Gary sighed.

"You're the one who can't talk to anybody about this."

Gary squeezed Xavier in a tight hug," You might be tempted to think, that as a seasoned time traveller, this stuff becomes second nature but you'd be wrong, it just doesn't ever get any easier."

"I know," Xavier said sadly.

Gary took a deep breath, "Why don't we talk about something else that's not to do with parting and not to do with the awful things I did to Yvonne."

Xavier smiled slightly, "Still trying to hide even if you can't make it," he commented.

"Tell me what to do and I will do it but as you said, I have to leave Yvonne otherwise you will not exist."

"Typical bigamist's excuse!" Xavier said frightening Gary, for just a moment he had sounded very much like Ron.

"Tell me about the war," Gary said quickly before he lost the nerve.

Xavier remained silent.

"Sorry," Gary retracted, "I shouldn't have done."

Xavier sighed deeply, "No, you're right, maybe now is the time to talk about it."

"It's just I was just wondering what had happened and where the miracles of modern medicine had got to."

"Oh yes, that thing called progress which should have been able to cure anything by now."

"Well yea," Gary said, "Can't they replace things and make them good as new?"

"Yep, I could have paid for the full works, it might have worked, I have the money," Xavier replied, "But I didn't want it."

"Why not?"

"Oh think on your feet Gary, where would they have sent me if I was returned to fitness?"

"Back to war?"

"Yep, back to war, just to get blown up all over again." Xavier sighed, "I know I'm a coward but I was so hopeless, I don't want to do it again."

"So how did you fool the authorities?"

"I paid the money and bribed the doctor to submit a report saying that an attempt had been made and that it was unsuccessful, you can do anything if you've got the money."

"But you can get it done properly after the war?"

"No, it'll be too late by then, it would be too late now."

Gary listened out for bombs, the siren was still sounding but there had been nothing. "They're too scared to sound the all clear," he observed.

"As for how it happened," Xavier continued," It was just one explosion amongst many, except that I was too close rather than somebody else. Then it was a long trip home. No heroic story I'm afraid."

Gary smiled, "I was supposed to be the World War Two hero back in the forties but I spent the whole war running away from danger."

"I know you did your bit," Xavier said knowingly.

"Do you know what happens to Phoebe and I?" Gary asked eagerly.

"Yep, I do."

"Will you tell me?"

"No," Xavier replied firmly, "But don't worry Gary, there is nothing worth worrying about."

"So we're OK then," Gary said feeling calm and reassured.

"My father sought out your entire history whilst he was trying to convince me of the truth of the story." Xavier added, "You should have seen your face when you first took a smoke, it was classic," he added to lighten things up.

Gary knew exactly where he was coming from, "I know, stuff I shouldn't know or even be thinking about." He said squeezing Xavier, "I wish that siren would shut up so we can go to sleep."

"I might not need it to be quiet soon," Xavier commented as he closed his eyes, "I am so tired."

Although the siren kept on wailing for another hour, Xavier was soundly asleep long before that. Gary kept watch, staring at the ceiling, trying to listen out for bombs until the sun came up and the noise finally ceased.

The morning proved to be rather surreal, Gary and Xavier went through the process of getting ready as if they were a couple who had been together for years, only they both knew that it was the last morning and there was no getting out of it. Gary helped Xavier with the bandaging and Xavier told him how his knee would dislocate if it wasn't done. They smoked a lot, Gary didn't know how he would have the nerve to do what he had to do otherwise. He vowed that he would never get bored ever again, he would just have to take up knitting or something.

Suddenly they were sitting next to each other on the sofa and it was nearly time to go. Gary looked at Xavier, taking in all the little gestures that reminded him of Ron and all the new ones, which were Xavier's alone. He felt regret like he had never felt it before. The choice was out of his hands; it was no choice at all. Xavier remained outwardly calm as the time ebbed away from them whilst they sat in silence. There was nothing Gary could bare to say and Xavier didn't seem to mind, he just sat holding Gary's hand in his.

Gary looked at the clock just as Xavier did too. They shared a look that was mutually understood and stood up, for all the world looking like robots. Gary got Xavier's coat and held it for him as he put it on. He wrapped it round his shoulders and let his hands linger for longer than was necessary.

The day was far too busy for goodbyes, by the time they got to the bar it was nearly time for opening, the kitchen staff had already begun preparing the lunches. Xavier hung his coat up and returned back to Gary, he gave him a wistful but grim smile.

"Come out into the yard with me, we will not be disturbed there," Xavier said never taking his eyes off Gary once.

Privacy was what Gary craved most now, he followed Xavier outside; once they were by the gate Gary put his arms round Xavier and prepared to do his best at saying goodbye. Xavier was clinging to him closely.

"I can't believe it's been so short a time," Xavier whispered at Gary's neck, the feel of it making him want to dissolve to nothing as far as the rest of the world was concerned.

Suzie broke their solitude with a cheery greeting and the news that she had something important to discuss.

"It's cold today, I hope you'll not be out here too long," she added firmly before going back into the bar.

Xavier sighed, "She's probably suspicious by now."

"She's guessed who I am?" Gary asked not letting go of Xavier.

"Maybe not quite but she'll have figured it out in a minute if I don't go inside," Xavier added.

Gary could feel it all slipping away. There was so much he wanted to say and he couldn't find the words for it and he was out of time. He held onto Xavier tightly, delaying the moment that loomed so large on the near horizon.

"You have to go," Xavier whispered to him shakily.

Gary took a deep breath and forced himself to stand away from Xavier, he looked into his eyes not making the final move. He reached out and took Xavier's head in his hands. Xavier closed his eyes and took a heart wrenching deep breath, knowing it would be the last kiss.

A delivery van drove up outside the gate, the radio music filling the air as the driver swung his door open and got out. He started unloading the van, singing to the music as he worked. Xavier opened his eyes and glared at the heavens as if to say 'why?'

"There are no grand farewells," Gary commented ruefully.

Xavier gave him a questioning gaze.

"Just something your father said to me a short while ago," he explained.

"You must go now, before the van driver chooses to speak to me," Xavier said wiping a tear from his face.

Gary looked up, the van driver was closing in on them, he looked Xavier in the eye, then kissed him firmly on the lips. "No grand farewells," he whispered with a lump in his throat. Xavier gently pushed him through the portal and into the past.

Gary stood facing away from the gate, he felt coldness draining through his stomach and he wanted to go back. He knew now what he had wanted to say, all the meaningful stuff and the gestures that would have deepened the experience. An arm went round Gary's waist and pulled him back towards a warm body, which was at once familiar.

"You forgot a bit," Xavier said, "No famous last words."

Gary could feel Xavier smiling behind him with the delight his surprise had caused. Gary swung around.

"Did you know you could do that?" Gary asked, he was just pleased that he was going to get his moment.

"I knew that I could, I am your son after all, I just didn't know whether I should or not," He answered gazing up into Gary's eyes, his own full of meaning, "I just couldn't let it end like that, this is going to be no 'Brief Encounter'."

They edged along the wall so they wouldn't be seen from the yard of the shop and Gary told Xavier all the things he had to say as a lover and all the advice he had as a mother. He kissed him during the brief pauses and held him tightly close as he spoke.


	6. Epilogue

Epilogue 1

When Ron entered the shop through the open front door on Tuesday dinnertime he found Gary behind the counter with his head on it, sound asleep. As was his wont, he went up to the counter and slammed his hands down on it making as much noise as possible. Gary jumped out of his skin, looking wildly about him, in a blurry vision, disorientated kind of way.

"That's a 'bad air raid' kind of jump Gary, how you doing mate?" Ron asked.

Gary stared at Ron like he'd seen a ghost.

"My little trip out into the country was wonderful, thank you for asking." Ron added.

"What?" Gary asked looking like he had been run over by a challenger tank.

"I had a trip into the country, it was very nice." Ron repeated.

"Oh, right." Gary replied.

"So, what have you been up to while I've been away?"

"Oh, nothing much, you know, the usual," Gary replied vaguely.

"Bad air raid obviously?"

"Yep, bad air raid Ron," Gary added.

"You look like shit, mate." Ron commented.

"Thanks."

"Why don't you get off home, I'll stay here till closing," Ron offered.

"OK, thanks."

"Want to talk about it?"

"Not now Ron OK?"

"Must have been a bad one," Ron observed.

"I'll be off home then," Gary said standing up.

"I went there this morning, Yvonne has come home early, and she's wondering where you've been."

Gary looked like he was going to crumple up on the floor.

"So you had better have a shower and a change of clothes before you go home," Ron added.

"Why?" Gary asked.

"Because you smell rather strongly of Marijuana, Gary, obviously."

"Hmm, obviously," Gary said disappearing into the back of the shop.

Epilogue 2

The sky was heavy with clouds and a crack of lightning shot across the nighttime sky. Xavier stood at the gate in the back yard, the place where the time portal used to be. He leant against it feeling the sharp metal dig into his forehead not caring about the pain. An old man quietly crossed the yard and came to stand beside him. He almost jumped out of his skin when he noticed him. Xavier stood upright away from the gate, trying to compose himself.

"Hello Xavier," the old man greeted him.

"What are you doing here?" Xavier snapped.

"I came here because it's the fifty third anniversary of the portal closing down." The old man answered.

"And my meeting Gary at the end of his time travelling adventures tells you that it is finally over?" Xavier managed to add in a near to normal voice. He wished that his father would just leave him alone, now was not the time to talk but he wouldn't understand that.

"Yes," Ron said, "You met him a few months after he got through to the 19th century, it makes sense really; it wouldn't have occurred to him before then. By May 1999, May 1945 and also, we now know, May 2052; the portal had closed down for him."

"Yes, they had already had the last Christmas, he told me the story about the time engineer."

"I miss him you know, still do after all this time," Ron offered as he fingered at the metal of the gate, "Tell me, what did you two guys get up to?"

"Well, I just did as you told me to, kept him away from girls, took him out, had a good time." Xavier answered as vaguely as he could.

"Smoked a few joints?" Ron added jovially.

"Yep," Xavier answered, "One or two."

"That's how I knew," Ron added.

"Knew what?"

"That he got through. Gary wasn't the sort of person who would go looking for that sort of thing but he was the sort who would try it if it just so happened to be lying around."

"When in Rome," Xavier added.

"Yes, when in Rome, do as the Romans do," Ron said with nostalgic thoughts going through his head, "When it was made legal, that's when I knew, or thought I did. I found him one day sitting in the shop stinking of the stuff and for once he wasn't keen to talk about what he had got up to; he never could stop talking about it."

"Maybe it was because he believed that you were dead when he came through." Xavier offered.

"Maybe, though I would say he looked exactly as you do now."

"I hated having to lie to him, ironic isn't it? He would have loved to have met you again."

"I think the shock would have killed him, you kept that other stuff to yourself didn't you?"

"Hmm," Xavier muttered, he couldn't risk more.

"Well," Ron said cheerfully patting Xavier on the back, "At least in this era nobody gets their heart broken; thanks to you!"

Xavier couldn't say anything; he just clenched the gate till his hand bled. His father waddled off back into the shop. Xavier let his head fall against the rails of the gate. Ron was inside watching on the security camera as he waited for Xavier to join him. Minute after minute passed and he didn't come in, even as the rain lashed against the bar front window.

"Oh Gary, I miss you so much," Xavier whispered to the gate, then cried silently in the dark as the thunder rumbled in the sky.

Acknowledgements

'Don't say goodbye, leave the past behind', Quake - Mantra (Forever), 1999, Ministry Of Sound Recordings.

'Until forever fades away', Lost Witness - Red Sun Rising (Lange Mix), 1999, Ministry Of Sound Recordings.

'Into the arms of temptation', Matt Darey presents Mash Up – Liberation (Temptation – Fly Like An Angel) (Matt Darey Remix), 1999, Incentive Music.

'Everything will be perfect, tonight and forever' Lost Witness - Happiness Happening, 1999, Ministry Of Sound Recordings.

'Here's a lot of danger' Brother Brown featuring Frank'ee – Under The Water, 1999, London Records.

.

Quote - Ron: Life's not a movie Gary, there are no grand farewells, no famous last words.

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